Environmental Health & Climate Change
Environmental Noise Exposure and Mental Health: Evidence From a Population-Based Longitudinal Study
Exposure to environmental noise from within homes has been associated with poor mental health. Existing evidence rests on cross-sectional studies prone to residual confounding, reverse causation, and small sample sizes, failing to adequately consider the causal nature of this relationship. Furthermore, few studies have examined the sociodemographic distribution of noise exposure at a country level.The Relationship Between Environmental Exposures and Post-Stroke Physical Activity
Post-stroke physical activity has widespread health benefits. Environmental exposures may shape post-stroke physical activity behavior. This study investigates the relationships between environmental exposures and post-stroke physical activity.Perceived Urban Environment Attributes and Device-Measured Physical Activity in Latin America: An 8-Nation Study
Attributes of the neighborhood-built environment are associated with self-reported physical activity, but only a few studies have concentrated on device-measured physical activity in Latin America. This study examines the associations of perceived neighborhood-built environment attributes, device-measured sedentary time, and light-intensity and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in adults from 8 Latin American countries.Mixed Effects of Neighborhood Revitalization on Residents’ Cardiometabolic Health
Despite the growing recognition of the importance of neighborhood conditions for cardiometabolic health, causal relationships have been difficult to establish owing to a reliance on cross-sectional designs and selection bias. This is the first natural experiment to examine the impact of neighborhood revitalization on cardiometabolic outcomes in residents from 2 predominantly African American neighborhoods, one of which has experienced significant revitalization (intervention), whereas the other has not (comparison).Social and Economic Differences in Neighborhood Walkability Across 500 U.S. Cities
Neighborhood walkability has been established as a potentially important determinant of various health outcomes that are distributed inequitably by race/ethnicity and sociodemographic status. The objective of this study is to assess the differences in walkability across major urban centers in the U.S.Impact of Neighborhood Social and Environmental Resources on Medicaid Spending
In an era of COVID-19, Black Lives Matter, and unsustainable healthcare spending, efforts to address the root causes of health are urgently needed. Research linking medical spending to variation in neighborhood resources is critical to building the case for increased funding for social conditions. However, few studies link neighborhood factors to medical spending. This study assesses the relationship between neighborhood social and environmental resources and medical spending across the spending distribution.City-Specific Air Quality Warnings for Improved Asthma Self-Management
This study presents a framework for identifying “high-risk” days for asthma attacks associated with elevated concentrations of criteria pollutants using local information to warn citizens on days when the concentrations differ from Environmental Protection Agency Air Quality Index (AQI) warnings. Studies that consider the unique mixture of pollutants and the health data specific to a city provide additional information for asthma self-management. This framework is applied to air pollution and asthma data to identify supplemental warning days in Houston, Texas.Influencing Agricultural Policy: A Call for Intersectoral Collaboration to Reduce Obesity and Climate Change
To the Editor: A recent review by Franck et al. discussed the importance of agricultural policy and its impact on the American obesity epidemic.1 The review was motivated by the expiration of the 2008 Farm Bill and the drafting of a new Farm Bill for 2013, which would have implications for agricultural management for the next 5 to 7 years.1 The authors argued that government subsidies to agricultural markets have encouraged an overproduction of food, including an oversupply of grain-fed livestock in the U.S., and have conversely discouraged production of fruits and vegetables.Minimization of Heatwave Morbidity and Mortality
Global climate change is projected to increase the frequency and duration of periods of extremely high temperatures. Both the general populace and public health authorities often underestimate the impact of high temperatures on human health. To highlight the vulnerable populations and illustrate approaches to minimization of health impacts of extreme heat, the authors reviewed the studies of heat-related morbidity and mortality for high-risk populations in the U.S. and Europe from 1958 to 2012. Heat exposure not only can cause heat exhaustion and heat stroke but also can exacerbate a wide range of medical conditions.Attack on Protections Against Air Pollution
It is well accepted that air pollution has a deleterious impact on personal and public health. Because control and reduction of air pollution are subject to federal regulation, physicians, as advocates for patients, must help educate the Congress on its critical role in preventing the health effects of air pollution. This is particularly important given that Congress is currently debating whether to dismantle existing laws that protect the air we breathe, especially the Clean Air Act [CAA], a cornerstone of environmental health law.Community–Academic Partnerships: How Can Communities Benefit?
In answer to the question of how academic institutions will meet medical education needs and public health challenges of the 21st century, a strong, vibrant, and sustained community partnership has been developed to teach public health, address community public health needs, and develop health policy to sustain these improvements, all with a practical approach. In this paper, the partnership between the University of Vermont College of Medicine and various community agencies is described from the perspective of how the community can benefit from educational efforts in public health.Modeling of Regional Climate Change Effects on Ground-Level Ozone and Childhood Asthma
The adverse respiratory effects of ground-level ozone are well established. Ozone is the air pollutant most consistently projected to increase under future climate change.Using Systematic Reviews to Separate Scientific from Policy Debate Relevant to Climate Change
The Copenhagen summit was to be moment in history when the international community was to agree that climate change is the most urgent and important threat facing global health1 and take decisive action to prevent its worst impacts.2 Instead, the UN summit in Copenhagen was plagued by political infighting, policy disagreement, increasing public scepticism, and persistent criticism of the science in the lay literature. It is not clear what effect this critique of the science had on policymakers during and after the summit, but the effects on public opinion have been profound.Constraints and Barriers to Public Health Adaptation to Climate Change: A Review of the Literature
Public health adaptation to climate change is an important issue and inevitably is needed to address the adverse health impacts of climate change over the next few decades. This paper provides an overview of the constraints and barriers to public health adaptation and explores future research directions in this emerging field. An extensive literature review was conducted in 2010 and published literature from 2000 to 2010 was retrieved. This review shows that public health adaptation essentially can operate at two levels, namely, adaptive-capacity building and implementation of adaptation actions.Bumps on the Road to Preparedness
Bad things happen. Many of us know from personal experience that trees fall on houses, basements flood in heavy rains, and cars crash. The daily news reminds us that toxic impoundment ponds breach, mines and bridges collapse, earthquakes and hurricanes devastate vulnerable places, and drought and wildfires wipe out crops. Although such events can be tragic, they are predictable, and should rarely be surprising.Climate Change and Health: Strengthening the Evidence Base for Policy
The work of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has contributed greatly to the advancement of knowledge about the causes and consequences of climate change.1,2 It has been a key influence in forging a growing scientific consensus about the contribution of human activities in a range of sectors including power generation, transport, built environment and agriculture, and land use to the increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The potential impacts of climate change on human health have been reviewed by the IPCC.The Built Environment, Climate Change, and Health: Opportunities for Co-Benefits
The earth's climate is changing, due largely to greenhouse gas emissions resulting from human activity. These human-generated gases derive in part from aspects of the built environment such as transportation systems and infrastructure, building construction and operation, and land-use planning. Transportation, the largest end-use consumer of energy, affects human health directly through air pollution and subsequent respiratory effects, as well as indirectly through physical activity behavior. Buildings contribute to climate change, influence transportation, and affect health through the materials utilized, decisions about sites, electricity and water usage, and landscape surroundings.Community-Based Adaptation to the Health Impacts of Climate Change
The effects of and responses to the health impacts of climate change will affect individuals, communities, and societies. Effectively preparing for and responding to current and projected climate change requires ongoing assessment and action, not a one-time assessment of risks and interventions. To promote resilience to climate change and other community stressors, a stepwise course of action is proposed for community-based adaptation that engages stakeholders in a proactive problem solving process to enhance social capital across local and national levels.Climate Change and Public Health: Thinking, Communicating, Acting
A decade ago there was active debate about whether human-induced climate change was real, and whether human contributions have played a major causal role in the recently observed global warming. That debate is largely over, although the inherent complexities of climate system science and various uncertainties over details remain. A corollary question—whether climate change would have implications for public health—also has been settled. The answer is yes. A range of possible effects has been identified, some now fairly well understood and others yet unclear.Climate Change and Extreme Heat Events
The association between climate change and the frequency and intensity of extreme heat events is now well established. General circulation models of climate change predict that heatwaves will become more frequent and intense, especially in the higher latitudes, affecting large metropolitan areas that are not well adapted to them. Exposure to extreme heat is already a significant public health problem and the primary cause of weather-related mortality in the U.S. This article reviews major epidemiologic risk factors associated with mortality from extreme heat exposure and discusses future drivers of heat-related mortality, including a warming climate, the urban heat island effect, and an aging population.Climate Change, Health Sciences, and Education
The late James P. Grant, who served as Director of UNICEF from 1980 to 1995, spoke of “the silent emergency,” embodied in the “daily tragedy of millions of children caught in the relentless downward spiral of poverty, population, and environmental degradation.”1 Were he alive today, he would undoubtedly have placed climate change, a silent emergency of enormous consequence, at the center of this vicious spiral. Indeed, the profound disruption of the earth's ecosystems has replaced environmental degradation as the operative term.Climate and Vectorborne Diseases
Climate change could significantly affect vectorborne disease in humans. Temperature, precipitation, humidity, and other climatic factors are known to affect the reproduction, development, behavior, and population dynamics of the arthropod vectors of these diseases. Climate also can affect the development of pathogens in vectors, as well as the population dynamics and ranges of the nonhuman vertebrate reservoirs of many vectorborne diseases. Whether climate changes increase or decrease the incidence of vectorborne diseases in humans will depend not only on the actual climatic conditions but also on local nonclimatic epidemiologic and ecologic factors.
